


DC Comics Presents: Central City Pride 1995

by Sinna



Category: The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Queer Gen, Queer History, Wally West doesn't always know what he's doing but he tries his best, set sometime after the Neron shenanigans and Roscoe's return
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-12 10:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19129903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinna/pseuds/Sinna
Summary: Hartley Rathaway has better friends than he realized.





	DC Comics Presents: Central City Pride 1995

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking sad things about Hartley and Pride, and then I remembered that James Jesse has never heard the word impossible and Wally West's greatest redeeming quality is that he tries his best to be a good ally to his friends. So instead of writing angst I wrote fluffy friendship.  
> To the best of my understanding, the queer community stuff should be relatively accurate for the mid-90's. I was a baby at the time so I'm relying on the shared experiences of those who were actually there.

It had been three days, and Piper was officially moping.

It wasn’t uncommon for him to get a little sad sometimes, and Wally could hardly blame him, considering what he knew of Piper’s whole family situation. And friend situation, really. As far as Wally knew, he was Piper’s best and only real friend. Well, him and Linda. The two of them got on like a house on fire, to Wally’s delight and dismay. But Wally had the Titans, and the Justice League, and friends at the police station, and even a few acquaintances from high school he still talked to. Linda had her friends at the news station, and her biweekly lunch date with her college sorority, and a variety of weird contacts around the city who showed up occasionally to take her to brunch and drop tidbits of information that inevitably led to unnecessary danger and award winning news stories.

Piper, on the other hand, had cut ties completely with everyone he grew up with, and then cut ties with the new friends he’d made among the criminal underworld – a fact Wally was grateful for, certainly. Any friends he might have made among the activist groups he worked with had been strained lately – along with his romantic relationship – thanks to that mess with The Top. As it was, Wally barely saw Piper out of his workshop in the past month, and that was usually only when Wally himself needed help on a case.

But these past three days, things had somehow managed to get even worse.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Wally asked.

Piper was bent over one of his sonic devices. His red hair looked like it had been in the same messy bun for several days, and there were deep red lines on his face from his currently discarded safety goggles.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Piper insisted.

“I haven’t seen you eat in three days,” Wally pointed out.

Piper gestured to a pile of takeout boxes in the vague vicinity of the overflowing trash can.

“Dude, this room looks worse than my college dorm room,” Wally pointed out.

“ _Thanks,_ ” Piper grumbled.

“Look, I didn’t mean it like that,” Wally backpedaled. “I just… I’m your friend, okay? And I’m worried about you.”

“It’s stupid,” Piper said. “It’s nothing.”

“Tell me anyway,” Wally suggested. “It’s obviously not nothing if it’s bothering you like this.”

In the space between his suggestion and Piper’s reply, Wally cleared Piper’s workstation and straightened up the boxes of circuits on the shelves.

Piper pulled a letter out of his desk and spread it out on the desk with unnecessary force.

“The Central City GLA has _suggested_ that I refrain from participating in this year’s Pride March.”

Wally racked his brain for a millisecond. Right. It was June. He’d been hearing a little about the Pride March – mostly in his co-workers complaining about how some streets were being shut down this weekend for the event – and he remembered thinking that was probably Piper’s sort of thing. So why didn’t someone want him to go?

“They know you’re not a supervillain anymore, right?”

“Doesn’t matter. They’re right. Fox News gets their hands on a clip of me at a Pride event, they’ll be all over it. Especially with the stunts I pulled last Fall. I can see it now: ‘The Gays Are Out to Destroy American Values.’”

He painted the imaginary headline with his hands, before slumping back in his seat.

“Face it, Wally. I’m a conservative’s worst nightmare come true. A nice little rich boy turned disabled gay socialist former supervillain.”

“That’s never stopped you before,” Wally pointed out. “You’re usually proud of that.”

He winced internally at the word choice.

“It usually doesn’t mean risking anyone other than myself. If I show up at Pride, they have an excuse to send in more cops for “security”, and then everyone there is less safe.”

“Wouldn’t more cops make it more safe?” Wally asked.

“Not if you’re queer,” Piper told him. “I don’t expect you to get it, but cops don’t tend to take our side if things get violent.”

Wally frowned. He wanted to argue, but he’d begun to realize that Piper was usually right about this sort of thing.

“How would they feel about The Flash showing up?” Wally asked slowly. “How would _you_ feel?”

\--

“Ready to go?” Wally asked.

Linda nodded, grinning. She leaned in to kiss Piper’s cheek.

“You sure you’re not going to come?” she asked. “No one would stop you if you’re with Wally.”

“I’ve got plans,” Piper told her.

She laughed. “Ah, yes. Staring at electronics until they cooperate and listening to that stack of records you bought at that garage sale.”

He smiled ruefully.

“Don’t judge me.”

Wally hugged his friend. “We’ll make sure you can go next year.”

And then he scooped up Linda and moments later they were in the middle of downtown Central City.

The street was packed with brightly dressed people shouting slogans and carrying signs. The ones nearest to Wally had turned to him, a mix of fear and adoration in their eyes.

Wally placed Linda on her feet.

“Uh, hi, folks! I’m here to drop off this lovely reporter and show my support for your cause.” He waved. A few of them waved back. Most of them smiled.

Linda already had her notebook out and was taking notes and statements from the people nearest to her.

Wally zapped off. Piper had said he should find ways to help without drawing attention to himself. So he found a support table and volunteered his services. They looked shocked to see a superhero in their midst, but were quick to put him to work, distributing water and sunscreen and protein bars and tape to fix torn posters.

Once the word got around that The Flash was helping out, he was greeted with cheers whenever he popped out of superspeed to deliver supplies. At some point, someone offered him a flag, and from then on he had a cape.

About halfway through the afternoon, he noticed a poster that read “God hates gays.” Stopped in his tracks, he realized that the small group he’d passed was protesters, not participants.

Well, he could fix that.

Thirty seconds later, the entire group found themselves preaching to an empty cornfield.

\--

Hartley was watching Linda, on the tv interviewing a woman named Misty about her experiences being transgender, when the knock came on the door.

Hesitantly, he opened it.

“What do you want?” he asked the familiar visitor suspiciously.

James Jesse barged into the room, dragging a large trunk behind him.

“The Flash is at Pride, and you’re not,” he announced.

“Yes. And?”

“You’d never voluntarily miss it.”

Hartley groaned. When they were both Rogues, he’d paid James to cover for him while he took the bus to NYC’s Pride March one year. Central City hadn’t had their own march at the time. Trust the Trickster to not only have figured out the timing, but remember it all these years later.

“I’ve been _gently discouraged_ from attending. It wouldn’t look good.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“It’s a fair point.”

“Well, luckily, you have a devilishly handsome and wildly intelligent friend who’s here to fix things.”

Hartley raised an eyebrow. Sometimes James’ schemes were good. More often, they ended in disaster.

“Oh?”

Ignoring his skepticism, James opened the trunk he’d brought in.

“Well, Hartley Rathaway can’t go, but no one can stop you if they don’t recognize you.”

He tossed a long, red wig Hartley’s direction.

“So your idea is slightly longer hair?”

“My idea is that you go as Poison Ivy.”

“This isn’t Halloween.”

“No, but have you ever met a drag queen who wouldn’t go completely over the top at every opportunity? Besides, I have Catwoman’s word that they’ll find it hilarious.”

“They?”

“Obviously, I’m going as Harley Quinn.”

Hartley couldn’t help a laugh. Somehow, James always made things a little bit brighter.

\--

Thirty minutes and two arguments about heel height later, two drag queens joined the festivities in downtown Central City. The taller of the two had blond pigtails, an outlandishly skimpy take on a harlequin outfit, and looked born to walk in heels. The shorter looked like a fish out of water, had perfect lipstick, and wore sensible green boots that didn’t quite match the rest of the outfit.

They were greeted with cheers.

A passing blur resolved briefly into The Flash, wearing a rainbow cape and a plethora of glitter.

“Welcome to Central City Pride! Do you need water? Sunscreen?”

“We’re just fine, cutie pie,” the blonde assured him.

He was gone in an instant.

Hartley couldn’t stop laughing. He grasped James’ hand almost unconsciously.

“Thank you.”

\--

It was well past midnight when Wally collapsed on the couch, groaning dramatically. Piper appeared from his workshop, a bemused smile on his face.

“You’ve got some glitter on your… uh…” he gestured helplessly to the entirety of Wally’s body.

“How do you get it off?” Wally wondered.

“Divine intervention might do it,” Piper suggested smartly. “You know a couple gods, right?”

Despite himself, Wally smiled. There was the Piper he knew and loved.

“Next year, you’re gonna be there too.”

Piper smiled.

“Definitely.”

Wally was asleep before he had the chance to ponder the glitter that had taken up residence on Piper’s collarbones.

**Author's Note:**

> James has absolutely had the "Piper and I dress up as drag queen versions of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy" plan in his back pocket for years now and he finally found a chance to use it.  
> Happy Pride Month to all!


End file.
